Spring shooting sports: Bookcliff Muzzleloaders, Birds and Birdies

The Emery County gun club recently hosted their Birds and Birdies tournament. They spent the Friday night shooting birds and then showed up at the Millsite Golf course on Saturday morning to hopefully shoot a few birdies in their nine-hole round of golf.

The Emery County gun club is dedicated to the promotion of shooting sports. They specialize in trap shooting and they have been very active in involving the youth of the county and introducing them to the sport. They shoot at the Emery County gun range which is located near the Emery County landfill.

They take the youth underwing and show them how to load the gun, how to aim and shoot and then reload. The youth groups have enjoyed getting to know the sport better.

The Jewkes brothers have been instrumental in promoting the sport and creating the gun club. The present president of the club is Jeremy Jewkes and officers are Jason Jewkes, Eric Luke and Carl Beckstead. Brothers Derri and Shawn Jewkes have also been involved. They have done a lot of work in improving the gun range to make it into a quality facility.

The gun club shoots all winter and they start about dark and shoot the birds under the lights. The Birds and Birdies tournament was a buddy shoot. Each buddy shot 25 birds and if they missed a bird, then their buddy would try to pick-up the bird before it hit the ground. Then the other buddy would shoot his/her 25 birds and their partner would try to pick up their slack if they missed a bird. The event was well attended. There were 10 teams with four people on a team for a total of 40. The golf champs team was Kasey Edgehouse, Joni Edgehouse, Brady Larsen and Kyler Edgehouse. The team that won the trap shoot was Casey Toomer, Shaun Bell, Lynn Tuttle and Steven Gordon. The overall tournament champs were Craig Brotherson, Dereck Brotherson, Justina Butler and BJ Butler. For more information about the club call Jeremy at 749-9768, Jason at 609-0047 and Eric at 749-0432.